Luke, 28, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, was convicted last May of killing two people and raping and shooting a third in a hate-filled rampage in Brockton in 2009. All three victims were of Cape Verdean descent.

“I think the world is a better place without Keith Luke in it,” said Rodrigues, who is the first Cape Verdean to serve on the City Council. “He is someone that doesn’t deserve to live, someone that caused so much harm and so much anguish to a community, to a city. I think the world is a better place today without him.”

Luke was pronounced dead at 12:10 p.m. Monday at the University of Massachusetts Hospital in Worcester, said Darren Duarte, a Department of Correction spokesman.

Luke had been on life support since arriving at the hospital on Saturday, Duarte said. Correction officers found Luke unresponsive in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Center in Shirley about 1 p.m. Saturday, he said.

Officials would not disclose how Luke died, however a source told The Enterprise that Luke committed suicide.

Luke had attempted suicide in jail at least three other times and carved a swastika into his forehead with a small staple.

In April 2010, Luke was found bleeding from a self-inflicted throat wound in a failed suicide attempt at the Plymouth County jail. He later underwent surgery at a Boston hospital.

In two earlier attempts, Luke feigned taking his medication, stockpiled the pills and then tried to kill himself by overdosing in his cell.

Luke had been serving two consecutive life sentences for the racially-motivated murders of Selma Goncalves, 20, and Arlindo Goncalves, 72, who are not related, and in raping and shooting a third victim on Jan. 21, 2009. He later confessed to police that he committed the crimes.

Luke told police that his rampage began on Clinton Street, where he shot his three victims, two of them fatally. He was later arrested at North Quincy and Court streets after his shootout with police.

Mayor Bill Carpenter said Luke “terrorized” Brockton that day.

“He terrorized the entire city,” Carpenter said after learning of Luke’s death. “The acts that were committed by him were the most horrific you could possibly imagine.”

Carpenter said his thoughts are with the victims and their families.

“Perhaps today they’ll find some closure,” the mayor said.

Last May, Luke’s surviving victim stood before a packed Brockton courtroom and stared at Luke, after he was found guilty of a murderous rampage that nearly killed her.

Page 2 of 2 - She called Luke – the man who raped and shot her and left her for dead – an “evil monster.”

“There are no words to describe the evil monster that destroyed the lives of so many innocent people,” the woman, whose name is not being released because she was the victim of a sexual assault, said at the time.

When informed about Luke’s death on Monday, Brockton police Lt. John Crowley, who had responded to the shooting scenes in 2009, said he wasn’t surprised.

“It’s not surprising,” Crowley said. “His pattern of behavior led you to believe that this was how he was going to end things.”

Crowley was among officers who responded to Clinton Street after the murders.

“It was a gruesome scene,” he said. “The damage he did that day is unforgettable.”

Court officials said they began to plan extra security measures for Luke’s trial in 2010, after Luke tried to kill a psychiatrist, who is Jewish, during a mental evaluation at a Plymouth jail. Luke had planned to end his 2009 rampage by killing bingo players at a synagogue.